Sighting

How to spell sighting

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sighting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sighting mean?

1. nounAn occasion on which something, especially something rare or notable, is seen or spotted.

Sighting in a sentence

• The first sighting of the comet was reported by an amateur astronomer.

• A rare bird sighting drew dozens of enthusiasts to the marshes.

Where does sighting come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word sight comes from the Old English gesiht or gesihth, meaning 'the faculty of seeing' or 'a thing seen', which in turn grew from the Germanic root that also gave us the verb 'to see'. Even in early English the word carried both the idea of the power of vision and the idea of something presented to the eye, so a striking view could be called 'a sight'. The -ing ending, a productive Old English suffix for forming nouns of action, was attached to produce a word naming a single occasion of seeing or spotting something, especially something rare or noteworthy. This particular noun is comparatively modern, becoming common as people reported observations of ships, wildlife, comets, and later aircraft. The spelling trap lives in the silent 'gh' inherited from the older guttural sound that English long ago stopped pronouncing, which is exactly why sighting is so easily confused with the unrelated 'siting' (placing something) and 'citing' (quoting a source).

How the word is built

• sight (from Old English gesiht: vision, the act of seeing)
• -ing (noun-forming suffix denoting an instance)

Words that sound like sighting

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• citing: Quoting or referring to a source, authority, or piece of evidence to support a point.